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r/lasercutting•
workaccount

Best Laser cutter to buy? Recommendations?

I've seen some older posts on this subject and wanted to see if there was any new news. I am looking to help a friend start a laser engraving side business and she is ready to invest in a laser cutter. I would appreciate any advice or recommendations! I currently use the trotec speedy 300 and the Epilog (forgot version) at my local TechShop, so I am familiar with a couple brands. Anyone have any insight on models, software/firmware, purchase price, power ratings, service and versatility? These are the main mfr that I am aware of. Trotec Epilog Full Spectrum Laser Universal Laser

Posted Nov 19, 2014, 9:04 PM UTC

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solitair•

Look at the Full Spectrum Lasers. I have the Hobby one and love it.

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fritter_rabbit•

Can the FSL Hobby cut stuff like this?

http://www.thebrokentoken.com/game-organizers/?sort=alphaasc&page=1

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solitair•

Yes, I cut bass wood like that all the time. You can cut up to a 1/4" thick wood, but some wood cuts better than others (Walnut is hard to cut). 1/8" bass wood cuts like a dream.

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fritter_rabbit•

Thank you, very informative!

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DorkMcHugh•

Agree. I have the 20"x12" generation 5. I'm not sure how well it could handle a side business - I guess it depends on how successful the business is and how much cutting would be required. I use mine a lot and haven't had any problems with it.

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Explore411•

Do you have the rotary attachment ?

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DorkMcHugh•

I don't. I could imagine getting it at some point in the future though.

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DorkMcHugh•

Actually got this today. I was a little surprised to learn that you have to remove the floor of your laser cutter in order to use the rotary attachment. I was planning on moving the laser cutter to a new location anyway so I'm glad I learned this now so that I can permanently remove the floor and design a new desk that allows for an arbitrary floor height in the new setup. It would have been a bummer to build the desk for the new location only to learn of this new requirement.

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jbrandt01•

I just bought one of the Chinese 40 watt ones and received it yesterday. I'm actually rather surprised at how good it is. Took a little tweaking of mirror alignment out of the box and gave everything a good once over. I plan on doing a lot of the common mods. The software consists if a plugin for Corel draw for vector paths and a piece called LaserDRW for raster. I had like basically zero documentation but got it working in a few minutes. People may gripe about the software but truthfully its equally as cumbersome as the TruTops software for my Trumpf that cost upwards of $16k.

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workaccountOP•

That's pretty awesome. I've been eyeing the Chinese versions but have no clue about the software interface. In relation to ease of use, I kinda hope that the software would be facile for any novice to just pick up. (I plan on training students as well) Would you happen to be able to drop me a screenshot?

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jbrandt01•

http://imgur.com/a/w5yT8

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workaccountOP•

Thank you!

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jbrandt01•

Sure thing, I'll get you the general rundown when I get home today. Its actually extremely simple.

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sgraber•

Could you list the mods you plan to do to it? I just got one myself.

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jbrandt01•

Out of the box, align the mirrors. Its huge, night and day difference plus it costs nothing other than time and some tape.

Air assist is a must. I made a very crude one by cutting the plastic tube JB stik comes in and using an airbrush compressor. There are plans all over the internet for 3D printing something similar. In the end I opted to just get an entire head assembly from http://www.lightobject.com/. Its like $17 and allows you to run a larger focus lens.

The stock mirrors are basically fine, I'm sure you can squeak out some more power from better ones but I think alignment is far more important. The stock focus lens is crap. Upgrade it. I don't see any reason to go to a different focal length, the stock one is about 50mm, considering half that is eaten up in the carriage assembly alone, its good.

I am also replacing the stock clamp/table thing with a stage that moves up and down. Again, http://www.lightobject.com/ sells one but you'll need something for control. For the time being I'm using a stepper driver on arduino until I upgrade to a DSP that has a dedicated output for such.

Future plans would be to retrofit a DSP and ditch the controller on it. This is really sort of optional. Primary goal is gain computer control over the power output. I've found that having to perform marking/engraving functions and then manually adjusting the power for cutting is a pain especially for high volume jobs. It would address this and allow programs to reside on the machine itself and operate independently from a computer.

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smithfield21•

If I was looking to do engraving on a wooden iphone case how easy is it to get the image to translate to the software? Would I be able to throw a jpeg at it and it'd etch it onto the case (providing I made the image the right size of course)?

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workaccountOP•

Actually, that is pretty simple. The most important thing is to make sure the picture is converted to b&w or grayscale. As long as it looks good there, you can raster engrave right on there

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smithfield21•

Super, and I've been looking at the chinese laser cutters/engravers in the £500-600 region (guess thats 8-900$..). Hard to tell about quality but given that just engraving flat wooden iphone cases is all it needs to do it's probably a more than adequate machine?

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workaccountOP•

Yes, you don't need a lot of power to do some basic engraving on wood. The biggest problem with the chinese models is the UI/UX of the software. It's usually pretty horrible. But, as long as you are a little technologically inclined, and can do some minor repairs/diagnoses on your own, it will be all good!

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smithfield21•

Well my main job is a web developer so hopefully should be able to sort it. Pretty easy to convert photos to black outlines in photoshop and export so suitable sized png etc.

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solitair•

Yes. It cuts up to a 1/4" and I have cut several box's in both 1/8" and 1/4" wood. That looks like bass wood and it cuts very easily.

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